Was Leonardo da Vinci Part of a secret cult worshipping John the Baptist?

Global blockbuster The Da Vinci Code made headlines upon its release by suggesting Leonardo da Vinci had hidden clues in his iconic painting The Last Supper pointing to Jesus having married Mary Magdalene

The explosive claim at the centre of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel – that Mary was the “beloved disciple” seen in the painting, sitting next to Jesus – sparked worldwide controversy. If Leonardo had actually suggested the Messiah had married, it would have gone against Church teachings and made him a heretic.

This, of course, is silly, as the beloved disciple is clearly stated in the Bible (John 19:26) to be a man.

But while Brown’s theory didn’t hold up under scrutiny, it did popularise an important idea: that Leonardo’s art may contain coded messages concealed in plain sight.

And it turns out, The Last Supper and other Christian artworks by da Vinci could really include a secret code — just not the one Brown imagined. A code that reveals that da Vinci was indeed a heretic, belonging to a supressed and forgotten Christian cult that worshipped John the Baptist over Jesus.

Let me explain.

Look at The Last Supper and you’ll notice a tiny detail: a single, raised finger. It’s a gesture that recurs across several of Leonardo’s paintings but which has gone largely unnoticed.

In the painting, one of the disciples seated to Jesus’s left, points sharply upwards, his hand painted starkly against a dark background. It’s clearly meant to draw the eye. But the gesture doesn’t match anything in the Gospel narrative. It’s not a reference to anything in the Last Supper scene where Jesus announces, “One of you will betray me.”

So what is Leonardo really trying to say?

A clue lies in another of his paintings, John the Baptist. If the title didn’t tell you, you’d never guess the grinning, androgynous figure is the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. He likewise raises a single index finger upwards. But I don’t think he’s doing this to indicate “Christ’s future destiny” as the official explanation suggests.

No – the smirk tells another story. And so does his left hand, which is pointing straight at himself. He’s telling us: “I am number one.”

Consider a third Leonardo image: The Burlington House Cartoon (also known as The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist). The figures are serene, classically arranged – until you notice, barely visible, a young John the Baptist ‘giving the finger’ once again, in a holy way of course. It’s rarely mentioned in gallery descriptions – but it’s there, and once again, it draws attention to John.

A final painting by Leonard, Virgin of the Rocks, has two versions. One in the Louvre, the other is in the National Gallery, London. In the Louvre painting, an angel is seemingly pointing at the baby John, not Jesus as we’d expect.

Let’s move to the real world. The Church of St Sulpice in Paris, famed for its esoteric architecture and symbolic line on the floor – the so-called “Rose Line”, also features an enormous statue of John the Baptist outside, with one of his fingers unmistakably pointing to the sky.

Why would a 19th-century sculptor echo Leonardo’s pose?

in Rennes-le-Château, a French village made famous by books on the secret lore of Christianity, a curious statue inside the Church of Mary Magdalene shows Jesus being baptised by John. Except, here, Jesus – the son of God, remember – is the one looking humble, almost deferential. John is regal, authoritative. In short, more important.

So everywhere we turn, we see John being given the upper hand, both literally and figuratively.

This raises an important question: was Leonardo part of a tradition – perhaps even an organisation – that revered John the Baptist above Jesus?

In the 1960s, a strange set of documents appeared in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. They claimed to be historical files of the ancient order of the Priory of Sion. Most now believe that the Priory of Sion was a modern-day hoax.But some of the information in these files was so obscure yet accurate, it seems unlikely to have been fabricated without enormous research.

Among the files was an extraordinary list of “Nautonniers” – Grand Masters – of the order. Leonardo da Vinci appears on that list as the leader from 1510 to 1519. Others include such figures as Nicolas Flamel, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Jean Cocteau. All of them – allegedly – took on the title “John”, numbered in sequence. Leonardo was supposedly John XIII. But who was John I? None other than John the Baptist. In fact, if you look again at Leonardo’s painting of the Baptist, the right hand indicates the number one, and the left one points to himself, with him indicating that he is number one.

Whether or not you believe in the reality of the Priory of Sion, the finger keeps pointing – in painting after painting – to something that art historians continue to miss. It’s almost as if Leonardo, through his art, is winking at us across the centuries.

And if he was indeed John XIII in this alleged order, then the finger may be pointing to a hidden Christian tradition – one in which John the Baptist, not Jesus, was supreme.

This is just a glimpse into the deeper story. There's a lot more to this and my new book, Leonardo da Vinci’s Penultimate Supper, reveals all.

Whether or not you agree with my conclusions, it’s certainly food for thought.

Julian Doyle is a distinguished British filmmaker with an outstanding career in the film industry. He is widely recognised for his long-standing collaboration with Monty Python, where he worked on their most celebrated films including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life. While internationally recognised for his work in film, he is also an expert on biblical history and is the author of multiple books on the subject including The Gospel According to Monty Python, The Secret Life and Hidden Death of the Galilean, and Who Killed Jesus?

Main Image, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1495–1498). Image via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.